He could have sworn he had put in the diamond
Date1913
Artist
Stanley Massey Arthurs
(American painter, 1877–1950)
Illustration Citation"Mr. Jones and the Nobility," by Dorothea Conyers, in The Saturday Evening Post, May 24, 1913
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions36 × 25 in. (91.4 × 63.5 cm)
frame: 42 1/8 × 31 1/8 in. (107 × 79.1 cm)
frame: 42 1/8 × 31 1/8 in. (107 × 79.1 cm)
Credit LineGift in memory of Ashby M. and Catherine B. Larmore, 2017
Object number2017-109
On View
On viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextThis story takes place in London. Archibald Jones (left) is an earnest working class employee of a diamond merchant. Through his assignments, he is exposed to the sometimes criminal activities of the aristocratic customers (the "nobility" of the title). Here, after his cleverness has unveiled a theft, he ponders how best to take a stolen gem from its drunken thief. His slightly awkward stance reflects the movement of the train as he ponders his predicament.Stanley Arthurs presents a simple but dramatic composition: two heads framed by windows, counterpoint curves of the head- and arm-rests, and a sense of the compartment's space created by the foreground seat and newspapers.
Stanley Massey Arthurs
1919
